NIA charge-sheets two in Kerala Maoist recruitment case

New Delhi: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has filed a supplementary charge-sheet against two people in connection with the 2022 Kerala case involving the recruitment of youth into the armed wing of the banned CPI (Maoist) organisation. The charge-sheet was submitted before the NIA Special Court in Ernakulam against R Ragavendran also known as Raghavendra and B G Krishnamurthy, who also goes by the aliases Vijay and Babanna, PTI reported.

The case was initially registered suo motu by the NIA in February 2022 and pertains to the alleged recruitment of cadres into the CPI (Maoist) and its armed faction, the People's Liberation Guerrilla Army (PLGA). According to the NIA, the accused were also involved in organising training camps to further the objectives of the banned group and its front organisations, aiming to destabilise the nation.

Krishnamurthy a central committee member of CPI (Maoist), provided both arms training and ideological indoctrination to new recruits in the forests of the Western Ghats. His activities were part of a broader effort to equip members to wage war against the Indian state. Originally from Karnataka’s Chikkamagaluru district Krishnamurthy had been inducted into the Kabani Dalam squad of the CPI (Maoist) to establish terrorist training camps for underground (UG) cadres. The NIA investigation further uncovered that Ragavendran, a native of Vellore, Tamil Nadu, was reportedly a participant in one of these camps. The case remains under active investigation, with further legal proceedings anticipated.